Keyword: videogames

I am woman! Hear me whine! I am officially considering myself a “#GamerGate wench” - well, you could insert another generally derogatory term if you like, but I won't. It's not because I'm opposed to being referred to by that word, but because that wouldn't be considered appropriate in this forum. No, I'm not one of those gamer girls that has taken to using “#notmyshield” to separate themselves from the whining social justice warriors that have been stirring the pot on the whole “women are hated in the world of gaming” trope. While I do play some video games, and...

For decades, video game fans have been clamoring for some kind of big media translation of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda. We’ve dreamt of movies, TV shows and everything in between. The closest we’ve come is a brief animated series from the late ’80s. Now, those dreams may be about to come true on a bigger scale. Netflix is reportedly out to writers for a live-action Legend of Zelda TV series. Nintendo is on board and working closely with Netflix but can ultimately scrap the idea if it doesn’t fit in with their vision of the series. Apparently, the streaming...

Bitcomposer, the publisher of games such as Space Hulk and Jagged Alliance, has filed for bankruptcy after having applied for a protective shield procedure back in September. The company also published Shadowrun Returns in German and Russian. The procedure was applied for on September 26th and protected the company from creditors while it organised a plan for insolvency, reports Develop. It was still able to publish titles in the period of time between then and now, and hopes to find an investor at this point to ensure it can continue to operate as a publisher and aid with development. Bitcomposer...

The father of video games, Ralph H. Baer, has passed away at age 92. He came to rest in his New Hampshire home on the night of Saturday, Dec. 6 according to Wikipedia and a Facebook post by video game historian Leonard Herman, a friend of Baer. Dubbed the "Thomas Edison of the home TV game" by Popular Electronics Magazine in 1980, Baer's Odyssey game system was the first home video game system. The patent for the idea was filed on August 10, 1970 and the system was released by Magnavox in 1972.

The federal government has invested over $10 million developing and promoting a video game about a young teen that must escape a town full of fat people, as a method to fight obesity.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) paid for the development of two video games that promote healthier eating, including Â“Escape from Diab,Â” a Â“nightmareÂ” fictional city where people are only allowed to eat junk food.Â“The story centers around five children who must get healthy enough to escape the evil King Etes,Â” explains Archimage, Inc., a computer game company that received $9,091,409 to develop the games. King Etes is...

The maker of hit mobile video game Angry Birds, Rovio, will lay off 130 staff, it announced on Thursday. The job cuts in Finland, which account for 16% of its workforce, will happen "sooner rather than later," said chief executive Mikael Hed on its website. "We have been building our team on assumptions of faster growth than have materialised," he added. Angry Birds is the number one paid mobile application of all time, according to Rovio. The company has expanded the brand into a TV series, toys, clothing and an animated movie, which is expected to premiere in cinemas in...

Last week, Breitbart News revealed a secret video game journalist mailing list used by a clique of influential writers, editors, and bloggers, some of whom attempted to bully their colleagues with it in an attempt to shape the news agenda for political purposes. We can today reveal the complete list of journalists, some 150 key industry figures, on the list. Outlets with representation span the entire video games journalism universe and include Polygon, Ars Technica, Wired, Eurogamer, Destructoid, Kotaku, Joystiq, TechRadar, and many other well-known brands in games publishing. But they also include freelancers and staffers for publications as solidly...

<p>I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that with regard to entertainment, conservatives and libertarians find science fiction and videogaming to be the most attractive options offered by pop culture these days, mainly because there’s a lot of SF that doesn’t try and stuff political correctness and half-baked socialist egalitarianism up our snouts. The same goes for videogames, which are mostly about killing bad guys and/or solving puzzles.</p>

Sean Bensema stayed up late one recent evening practicing and woke up unusually early the next morning to prepare for the biggest moment of his life: a tryout for an athletic scholarship to college. The shaggy-haired 18-year-old didn’t need to change out of the T-shirt he slept in or even leave his parents’ house to make the squad. He just set up his laptop on the dining-room table and started stunning his enemies with fire shot from the hands of his digital avatar. Mr. Bensema is among 150 players competing for a spot on the nation’s first varsity videogame team....

Over glasses of wine and a disco-spinning DJ, more than a dozen government-funded game developers showcased their products on a Wednesday night in Washington, D.C. Various government agencies have been paying these developers millions of dollars to create educational video games. The games ran the gamut from a Common Core-aligned, Shire-themed math challenge to a “judgment-free” historical role-playing game—and none of them were cheap. One young developer was eager to explain that the government spends more on these programs than most people might imagine. They’re usually funded through the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR), on which the government spends...

The Wall Street Journal has posted a profile of PewDiePie, the Swedish gamer who claims more subscribers than any other YouTube channel. According to the article, the 24-year-old grossed $4 million in 2013, making him a real-life YouTube millionaire. 2013 was a banner year for PewDiePie. He regularly scored hundreds of millions of views each month, accumulated more than two billion of them for the entire calendar year, and frequently topped our YouTube charts. All of those views added up to $4 million in ad revenue, though that number doesn’t represent PewDiePie’s ultimate profit, since partner network Maker Studios takes...

Here’s some good news from the venerable, if beleaguered, house of Nintendo : Wii U exclusive Mario Kart 8 sold 1.2 million units over the course of its first weekend, making it the best-selling game on the strange little console so far. At Forbes, reviewer Andy Robertson had nothing but good things to say about it, calling it a “Golden Bullet” and awarding it a rare 10/10 score. From his perspective, this fresh take on an old fan favorite represents Nintendo’s best chance at reversing the Wii U’s fortunes. “The early response to Mario Kart 8 demonstrates that the best...

Only when cops entered Rodger’s nearby apartment did they find his first victims: three multiply-stabbed men whose names were withheld Saturday night, pending family notification. It remained unclear Saturday night if any of the three were Rodger’s two roommates. He had written in the manifesto that he would “have to kill” them so he could turn the place into “my personal torture and killing chamber.” “I will start luring people into my apartment, knock them out with a hammer, and slit their throats. I will torture some of the good looking people before I kill them, assuming that the good...

It’s always fun predicting the future. People do it all the time because it is entertaining to imagine a world that we or our children will one day have the chance to experience. We’ve seen fictitious movies do this from time to time since the beginning of film. There was the hoverboard in ‘Back to the Future’, the jet packs in ‘The Rocketeer’, teleportation in Star Trek, and the list goes on. Some of these inventions have already become a reality, while we are still awaiting the arrival of others. Another Star Trek prediction, was that of the Replicator, which...

The publisher of such gaming franchises as "The Legend of Zelda" and "Mario Bros." said Tuesday it wouldn't bow to pressure to allow players to engage in romantic activities with characters of the same sex in English editions of "Tomodachi Life." This follows a social media campaign launched by fans last month seeking virtual equality for the game's characters, which are modeled after real people. "Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of 'Tomodachi Life,'" Nintendo of America Inc. said in a statement. "The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world...

... About 200 of residents and game enthusiasts gathered early Saturday in southeastern New Mexico to watch backhoes and bulldozers dig through the concrete-covered landfill in search of up to a million discarded copies of “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” that the game’s maker wanted to hide forever.... The “E.T.” game is among the factors blamed for the decline of Atari and the collapse in the U.S. of a multi-million dollar video game industry that didn’t bounce back for several years. Tina Amini, deputy editor at gaming website Kotaku, said the game tanked because “it was practically broken.” A recurring flaw, she...

A 24-year-old Homosassa man was charged Thursday with suffocating his 1-year-old son because he wanted to have time to play video games, the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office said. Cody Wygant was charged with third-degree murder and willful child neglect, the sheriff’s office said. Wygant was being held in the Citrus County Jail. A judge on Friday set bail for Wygant at $100,000 with his next court date scheduled for May 23. Citrus County Fire Rescue responded to Wygant’s home after receiving an emergency call at 8:21 a.m. Thursday that the child, Daymeon Wygant, wasn’t breathing. Daymeon was transported to Seven...

In another example of the government picking winners and losers, the House Ways and Means Committee, in its long-awaited tax reform bill, singles out violent video game makers for tax increases. On page 19 of the executive summary, the committee mentions an improved and permanent research and development tax credit, which has benefitted countless industries from manufacturers to software creators to food producers. The summary advocates for “an improved, permanent R&D tax credit, finally giving American manufacturers the certainty they need to compete against their foreign competition who have long had permanent R&D incentives." Well, unless they make violent video...

Man suffers smoke inhalation trying to get Xbox out of burning home • Fire possibly started in electrical junction box OLATHE, Kan. —A man suffered minor smoke inhalation early Friday morning when he ran back into his burning home to retrieve an Xbox, according to Olathe firefighters. Fire crews were called to the home in the 800 block of Loula Street about 3:30 a.m. Two men lived in the home. They were awakened by smoke alarms sounding. Authorities said both men got out, but one man went back into the home to get the video game system and was overcome...

On Tuesday the law office of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP submitted a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit is on behalf of Electronic Arts common shareholders who purchased the game publisher's stock between July 24, 2013 and December 4, 2013, aka the "Class Period." According to the lawsuit, Electronic Arts allegedly issued "materially false" and "misleading" statements highlighting the purported strength of the company's rollout of Battlefield 4 this fall. Electronic Arts then issued strong fiscal 2014 financial guidance for the company, and increased...

Police say a dispute among brothers over a video game turned violent Wednesday morning about 5 a.m. Officials say 18-year-old Luke Marshall was playing a video game with a friend when his older brother told him to be quiet. Shortly after his friend left, police say Luke Marshall got very upset, grabbed a double headed medieval ax and proceeded to strike his 21-year-old brother. The victim suffered cuts his right wrist and right leg, and requiring stitches. The younger Marshall was arrested for 2nd degree Assault, Terroristic Threats....

Military bases see Pokemon X/Y copies delayed due to government shutdown Certainly not the worst part of the government shutdown here in the states, but a very annoying one! At least there's still an eShop option.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the release of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” Critics frequently laud the Nintendo 64 title as the greatest video game ever. And yet the ways it deals with class, race, gender and animal rights are all deeply problematic. Some readers may take criticism of “Ocarina” as dismissal of the game. But this isn’t the case. As Feminist Frequency blogger Anita Sarkeesian says, “Remember that it’s both possible and even necessary to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.” Because games’ technological capabilities have increased...

Having defeated President Obama’s quest to shoot holes in the Second Amendment, a GOP Leadership aide recently told the Huffington Post the House would soon spend time examining the link between link between video games and violence, essentially kicking off a campaign for “virtual gun control.” Make no mistake; the road to gun control and the road to virtual gun control leads to the same destination — restrictions on your liberty. Part of the fallacy of gun control rests in the belief that in inanimate object can be responsible for the acts of the person in control of it. No...

If the Devil had his own bible, it would probably take the form of a computer game. It would be sly and witty, enjoyable and slick. It would start with small, almost funny misdeeds. It would offer the player the joys of money, successful violence and easy, responsibility-free sex. There would be drugs which didn’t fry your brain or burn holes in your nose. You would be made to feel brave, while not actually needing to be. None of your pleasures would be paid for in coin, pain or grief. Everyone else in the game would be disposable and forgettable....

A mentally challenged Florida man who had saved up for months to purchase a copy of "Grand Theft Auto V" was robbed of the video game as he left a GameStop store this week, police report. After buying the game Tuesday afternoon, Rohan Dawkins was approached in a Delray Beach parking lot by a couple who pulled up in a car. After asking Dawkins for the time, Tommy Davis, 27, grabbed the bag containing the best-selling game, which was released this week. When Dawkins sought to retrieve the item, Adele Jones, 25, allegedly kicked and punched the 21-year-old Dawkins,...

The release of Rockstar GamesÂ’ Â“Grand Theft Auto VÂ” generated $800 million sales in 24 hours around the world, a record for any game from Take-Two Interactive, and the Â“GTAÂ” franchise itself. Success of the game bodes well for other tentpole game releases debuting this fall including the next Â“Call of Duty,Â” Â“AssassinÂ’s CreedÂ” and Â“BattlefieldÂ” sequels, as well as Â“Batman: Arkham OriginsÂ” and newcomer Â“Watch Dogs.Â” The release of Â“GTAVÂ” is certainly impressive, especially when compared to film releases. The top three earners at the box office this year are DisneyÂ’s Â“Iron Man 3,Â” which generated $1.2 billion; UniversalÂ’s...

Aaron Alexis: Washington navy yard gunman 'obsessed with violent video games' Exclusive: The Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis played violent video games including Call of Duty for up to 16 hours at a time and friends believe it could have pushed him towards becoming a mass murderer.

Alexis, 34, who was shot dead on Monday after killing 13 people at Washington's Navy Yard, also carried a .45 handgun tucked in his trousers with no holster "everywhere he went" because he believed people would try to steal his belongings.

A video game that improved cognition in older adults has led researchers to revise their thinking about the brain's plasticity. "This study is small, but nonetheless, is has shown us that the older brain is capable of changing, compensating and adapting," said Molly Wagster of the National Institute on Aging. In other words, you can teach an old dog new tricks. A multitasking 3D video game that helped some older adults show neurological activity similar to much younger adults could lead researchers to a better understanding of the plasticity of the older brain. Researchers from the University of California San...

The Trayvon Martin trial recently finished its tenth day of testimony, with both the prosecution and the defense trying to decipher whether screams for help heard over a recorded telephone conversation belonged to Martin or that of George Zimmerman, who claimed to have killed Martin in self-defense. A few other things happened, too, like Judge Debra Nelson ruling that the THC content within Martin’s blood stream–caused by marijuana smoking–at the time of his death is relevant information. But in the case the news of the trail doesn’t satisfy news hounds, Android App developer Trade Digital, Inc. has you covered with...

A multimedia and marketing firm has secured permission to dig up a landfill used by the video game company Atari in the early 80s. This dump site may or may not contain 3.5 million copies of the notorious video-game adaptation of E.T. The local government in Alagora, New Mexico has given the go-ahead to the documentary crew of Fuel Industries to break ground in a underground desert dump site. The Canadian based company hopes to be Indiana Jones and uncover secrets from the past about Atari, namely the location of the unsold E.T. games. This level of excitement over mthyos...

"The bishop urged residents to treat neighbors and strangers from different traditions with 'respect and try to understand the differences.' 'If we allow differences to cause suspicion among us, we’re not helping to create a social contract in which people can live together harmoniously.'"

When I originally pitched writing this piece to Kotaku, I was a bit worked up. I had read some of Kotaku’s coverage of the post-Sandy-Hook gun vs. games debate, and I sent some pointed Tweets to Kotaku staff. I felt that the games industry media had not provided balanced coverage. I felt that every story of mass violence from the games media was slanted towards gun control as the answer--and the lack thereof as the cause. The few interviews I saw with game developers focused on gun control as the response to any calls for a check on video game...

The President Gives Hollywood a Pass on Violence Movies and videogames aren't high among White House concerns. CAMPBELL BROWN There was something missing from President Obama's Wednesday speech in Denver about gun violence. He focused almost exclusively on passing gun-control laws, and not at all on one of the nation's biggest promoters of violence: the entertainment industry. The president's campaign against gun violence has produced a stale debate marked by lots of speeches with little achieved. A more creative chief executive would have used this moment to widen the discussion by drawing attention to the increasingly graphic violence so pervasive...

This is not an April Fools Joke! This is serious! Pass laws requiring that purchasers of violent video games be at least 18 years old, be required to pass a background check and have each violent video game registered with authorities. And anyone who purchases more than 3 violent video games in a 30 day period be subject to a personal interview by authorities.

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are taking “X-Stream” games to an entirely new and unheralded level. The Pennsylvania-based Triple-A affiliate for the Philadelphia Phillies will be the first team in North America to introduce pee-controlled video gaming in men’s washrooms when the season opens next week. The IronPigs announced that the, um, unique, flow-controlled gaming experience would be available at Coca-Cola Park on opening day April 4. Fans who use the urinals will be able to compete against other flow-goers for the top score and the chance to hold the flow king crown. “Our fans are always looking for the next...

WASHINGTON — The gun lobby isn’t the only group throwing its weight around trying to thwart President Obama’s plans to combat gun violence. Even a modest proposal to study how violent video games might be affecting young minds has quietly run aground, the victim, sources say, of opposition by the burgeoning video game industry — a $67 billion colossus with increasing clout in Washington.

Avalanche Studios Believes in PlayStation 4’s 8GB of GDDR5 Being based on low-power/low-cost microprocessor technology and current-generation graphics processing technology from Advanced Micro Devices, Sony PlayStation 4 will unlikely offer horsepower comparable to even today’s gaming PCs. However, the PS4 has a secret weapon that even high-end PCs will not sport for a couple of years: 8GB of GDDR5 memory. As it appears, game developers believe in this feature.“[PlayStation 4] is a perfect fit for the types of games we do, and we are confident that we will bring open-world gaming to a whole new level because of it. I...

In the traditional version of Donkey Kong, Mario must rescue a blond damsel named Pauline. However, one father tweaked the game for his 3-year-old daughter so that Pauline would be the hero this time around. … Mika decided to hack the NES Rom of the game. He swapped the images of Pauline and Mario in the game. …

<p>A Newport Beach video game maker raised more than $1 million online Wednesday with the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter to fund its second game.</p>
<p>Just six hours after launching the online campaign, Brian Fargo and his inXile entertainment reached the $900,000 goal to make a role-playing game called "Torment: Tides of Numenera." The donations kept coming. By lunchtime, the campaign passed the $1 million mark, two hours quicker than fundraising for OUYA, a game console that went on to earn $8.6 million on Kickstarter.</p>

The Obama administration's assault on the Second Amendment in reaction to Newtown is not a serious solution. It's a Band-Aid on cancer. The NRA's call for armed guards in every school also misses the point. When is anyone going to get serious? The problem is violence, a violence of monstrous and horrific proportions that has infected America's popular culture. The Hartford Courant reported on Sunday that during a search of Newtown grade-school killer Adam Lanza's home after the shootings, "police found thousands of dollars worth of graphically violent video games." Detectives are exploring whether Adam Lanza might have been emulating...

TUSTIN, California The shooter who went on a violent rampage in California earlier this week has been described by authorities as a "loner" and a "gamer," CBS LA reports. The Orange Country sheriff's department has been investigating 20-year-old suspect Ali Syed since he allegedly shot five people, three fatally, before turning the gun on himself. Violent video games and mass violence: A complex link "He spent a lot of time alone in his room playing video games," said Orange County Sheriff's department spokesman Jim Amormino. There is still no known motive in the case and law enforcement officials are now...

EDITORIAL: Â‘Assault weaponsÂ’ are popular with the young. Are gamers key? In a recent Reason-Rupe poll a slim majority of American supported the private ownership of Â“assault weaponsÂ” (51 percent in favor, 44 opposed) and a slightly larger majority of Americans believe that the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School is being exploited for political means (52 percent see it as politicking, 41 as responsible governing). But there were some other findings that are sure to surprise many people, especially politicians. Specifically that age, not politics, has a greater bearing on whether or not a person has the right to...

Prince Harry's remarks that his job as a co-pilot in an Apache attack helicopter required him to "take a life to save a life" may have disconcerted some squeamish westerners. But it was Captain Wales's somewhat blasé attitude to fighting the hardline rebels that has most riled the Taliban. An indignant Taliban spokesman said the young prince was a coward who ran away from fighting the mujahideen, or "holy warriors", as the militants like to call themselves. "I don't believe that he participated in the fighting," said Zabiullah Mujahid. "Maybe he has seen the mujahideen in a movie, but that's...

'Wilko Johnson, the influential British rock guitarist who recently played mute executioner Ilyn Pane in the HBO series Game of Thrones, has announced details of his farewell tour, one week after going public with news that he is suffering from terminal cancer. Johnson first sprang to fame in the early 1970s as the guitarist for Dr Feelgood, an Essex 'pub rock' band whose style and attitude opened the door for punk rock and new wave music. Johnson's aggressive style of guitar playing was picked up and mimicked by bands including The Clash, The Stranglers and The Sex Pistols. The farewell...

Anyone know what Vice President Joe BidenÂ’s gamer handle is? Maybe Â“StandUpChuckÂ” or Â“Amtrak1Â” or Â“NoChanceIn2016?Â” How about Attorney General Eric Holder (Â“Fast-â€¨andFuriousUnleashedÂ”)? Or Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius (Â“WhatsAGamerHandle?Â”). I ask because these folks led FridayÂ’s session of the White House task force that grilled members of the video game industry. Three people who couldnÂ’t tell Â“Call of Duty: Modern WarfareÂ” from Â“AssassinÂ’s Creed II.Â” To be honest, IÂ’m not entirely sure I could, either. (Is Â“HaloÂ” the one with Master Chief, or is it Â“Gears of WarÂ”?) But IÂ’m not the one accusing an entire multibillion-dollar,...

Arnold Schwarzenegger says 'Terminator' and other violent movies shouldn't be blamed for mass shootings Arnold Schwarzenegger may be one of the world's biggest action stars but the former governor of California says violence in films is entertainment and should not be linked to tragic events like the Connecticut school shooting in which 20 children died. The star of films such as 'The Terminator,' 'Predator' and 'True Lies' told a press conference ahead of the opening of his new movie, 'The Last Stand,' that 'one has to keep (the two) separate.' '(This is) entertainment and the other thing is a tragedy...